Chuck is the author of the published novels: Blackbirds, Mockingbird, Under the Empyrean Sky, Blue Blazes, Double Dead, Bait Dog,Dinocalypse Now, Beyond Dinocalypse and Gods & Monsters: Unclean Spirits. He also the author of the soon-to-be-published novels: The Cormorant, Blightborn (Heartland Book #2), Heartland Book #3, Dinocalypse Forever, Frack You, and The Hellsblood Bride. Also coming soon is his compilation book of writing advice from this very blog: The Kick-Ass Writer, coming from Writers Digest.

He, along with writing partner Lance Weiler, is an alum of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab (2010). Their short film, Pandemic, showed at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, and their feature film HiM is in development with producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey. Together they co-wrote the digital transmedia drama Collapsus, which was nominated for an International Digital Emmy and a Games 4 Change award.

Chuck has contributed over two million words to the game industry, and was the developer of the popular Hunter: The Vigil game line (White Wolf Game Studios / CCP). He was a frequent contributor to The Escapist, writing about games and pop culture.

Much of his writing advice has been collected in various writing- and storytelling-related e-books.

He currently lives in the forests of Pennsyltucky with wife, two dogs, and tiny human.

He is likely drunk and untrustworthy. This blog is NSFW and probably NSFL.

Like this:

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. This is his blog. He talks a lot about writing. And food. And the madness of toddlers. He uses lots of naughty language. NSFW. Probably NSFL. Be advised.

Flash Fiction Challenge: SomethingPunk

The literary subgenre -punk contains, as I see it, a couple key features –

a) A world taken over by the technology or fuel source or by humans (often in an authoritarian role) attempting to control the utilization and implementation of that tech or resource.

and

b) Characters who represent an anarchic, rebel “punk” vibe in this world.

Certainly other definitions could apply, but this is the one I’m going for today. The Matrix works as cyberpunk because you have the authoritarian machine regime and also the radical activists who dress all bad-ass and work to break the regime and its system to itty bitty pieces. Is Star Wars spacepunk? Forcepunk? If you really wanted to be cynical, you might suggest that we — right now — live in an Oilpunk world. BUT I DETECT NO CYNICS HERE. Ahem.

Anyway.

Your job is to write 1000 words of fiction in a new SomethingPunk world.

Where [Something] is a noun (tech/resource, most likely) you choose.

Definitely no cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk.

That said, if you’re feeling a bit daunted by this initial open choice, I’ve included ten options below that you could grab and use in order to write this flash fiction challenge. Grab a d10 or choose randomly. If you grab from the list, the interpretation you choose is entirely up to you. (Most of those can go several ways, I suspect.)

You’ve got one week, par usual — due by noon EST on March 21st (Friday).

Post at your blog or online space. Link to your story in the comments below.

SomethingPunk Possibilities

Ghostpunk

Hellpunk

Cowpunk

Bloodpunk

Soulpunk

Geopunk

Godpunk*

Beastpunk

Dustpunk

Germpunk

* originally written “godspunk,” which sounds like “god-spunk” instead of “gods-punk.”

109 comments

Started off with a story set on an asteroid where Oxygen was a scarce resource…. ended up on Earth, with a totally different story. I than had to go back and determine what sort of punk I had stumbled upon. That is the beauty of flash fiction– no idea where the road will take you.

I give you: god-punk by way of my story, “The Idea that spontaneously leaps from the Subconscious fully formed” — 1000 words on the dot, oddly.

Being nibbled to death by ducks, feeling like there’s no time to breathe, so, so exhausted. Either a really good combination or a really bad one. I had been staring at the clock all night, calculating how much I had gotten done, how much I still had to do. Then at 22:45 I suddenly realized that I still had to write something tonight. It instantly seemed appropriate to write a “clockpunk” story, despite having NO idea what that might be. Fortunately, for better or for worse, my Muse had an idea.